photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Antonio Esparza

A plea agreement for a violent offender went off the rails Monday after a Douglas County judge informed the attorneys that they had been plea-bargaining using the wrong criminal complaint.

After she discovered the parties’ error, Judge Stacey Donovan reset the plea hearing for Wednesday to give the state and defense attorney time to craft a plea agreement based on the appropriate complaint.

At the top of the hearing, prosecutor Cody Smith had told the court that he and defense attorney Matthew Frederick had agreed for the defendant, Antonio Esparza, 30, to plead to a single count of interference with law enforcement, which is a low-level felony, and that two other higher-level felonies would be dropped: trafficking methamphetamine in a correctional institution and possession of methamphetamine. Smith said the two attorneys had also agreed, in a second case, to drop a count of aggravated violation of the Kansas Offender Registration Act, a high-level felony under state law, which requires violent offenders like Esparza to register with the state four times a year.

Smith said the parties additionally agreed to recommend that Donovan depart from the sentencing guidelines and give Esparza probation, at which point Donovan interrupted to say that the parties were operating off of the wrong complaint.

An amended complaint had been filed in the first case, she noted, which included only a single count of meth possession. That complaint, filed a month after the original last year, had superseded the original because Donovan had found probable cause did not exist for the charges of interference with law enforcement and trafficking meth.

Smith, who was not the original prosecutor on the case, said the parties had not realized an amended complaint had been filed. He and Frederick spoke privately for a few moments and indicated that they could still work out a plea based on the correct complaint. Donovan then scheduled a new hearing for Wednesday.

Esparza’s violent offender status is based on a 2017 conviction in Douglas County of attempted aggravated burglary, for which he served time in the Kansas Department of Corrections. The case was originally charged as aggravated burglary, but Esparza pleaded down to the attempted charge, as well as to two counts of attempted robbery. He was ordered to register as a violent offender for 15 years.

At Monday’s hearing, instead of facing the judge, Esparza largely focused on a woman behind him in the gallery who is well known in Lawrence’s homeless community. The woman, wrapped in a large blanket, followed Esparza — in shackles and handcuffs — out of the courtroom, where a deputy allowed her to hug Esparza — an activity that is generally not permitted with inmates who are in custody and returning to the jail.